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PINEY POINT LIGHTHOUSE

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1836, John Donahoo, engineer. 44720 Lighthouse Rd.
  • (Alexander Heilner)
  • (Alexander Heilner)
  • (Alexander Heilner)
  • (Alexander Heilner)
  • (Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie)
  • (Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie)

This lighthouse at the Potomac River is representative of the first generation of Maryland lighthouses motivated by an increase in steamship travel. It replaced a lightship that had warned mariners about the dangerous shoals at Piney Point since 1821. Built by engineer and noted lighthouse designer Donahoo, the squat conical brick structure with a metal cupola top is thirty feet high and formerly housed a fifth-order Fresnel lens. It resembles other Donahoo lighthouses of the period at Cove Point (1828) in Calvert County, Concord Point (1827) in Harford County (CM78), and Turkey Point (1833) in Cecil County. He also built the adjacent brick keeper’s house, which was altered from one and a half to two stories in 1884. Both structures are now part of a county park.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie
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Data

Timeline

  • 1836

    Built

  • 1884

    Keeper's house altered

What's Nearby

WARREN TOLSON COTTAGE
DRAYDEN AFRICAN AMERICAN SCHOOLHOUSE
BROME-HOWARD HOUSE AND SLAVE HOUSE
OLD MARYLAND STATE HOUSE AND HISTORIC ST. MARY’S CITY
CECIL’S OLD MILL AND CECIL’S COUNTRY STORE

Citation

Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie, "PINEY POINT LIGHTHOUSE", [Piney Point, Maryland], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MD-01-WS5.

Print Source

Buildings of Maryland, Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2022, 25-26.

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